章 7: 7. The Lord of Peta Estate.
For Zephyr, a day's rest was enough to return to normal. He had seen and come to terms with a lot of things. "The most difficult part is always the first step; once that is done, it's about remaining consistent, and then completing the task," Zephyr nodded at his philosophical view.
Getting out of bed was painful, but the enchantments in the room helped him bear with it. Mordret Valorborn's body was sturdy and trained enough to endure the pain.
The first thing Zephyr wanted to see was how he looked now, and when he did, his jaw dropped. "If being handsome was a sin... This man must be the greatest sinner," Zephyr had no doubt.
Mordret was taller, probably over six feet, which took Zephyr some time to adjust to. His physique was entirely different from Zephyr's. "Fuck... These muscles are so hard," Zephyr was impressed by Mordret's rigorous training. Mordret had no visible abs, but even a non-martial artist could tell that his core was extraordinarily sturdy. Every muscle on Mordret's body was perfect, no hindrance at all.
As for Mordret's appearance, it was outstanding. A serious face accompanied by sapphire eyes that stared into the soul of those before him. Neatly cut short white hair. Due to the rest, he had grown some beard as well. Mordret did not look like a man in his twenties at all. The aura he exuded was enough to make a grown man tremble in fear. It was as if Mordret had witnessed the worst of everything that ever happened. There were no emotions in his eyes, nor any on his face. Only a serious and stubborn look. Even when Zephyr tried to make him smile, all he received was a face that could haunt a child's dreams.
Mordret's body was wrapped in bandages all over, and there were many scars of battles, probably very hard-fought battles, evident on his body. Even the gash he had received from the tentacle monster was present.
"Eliza changes these every day." Zephyr didn't know how to feel about a woman seeing him naked every day, but it was fine if it was Eliza. However, the coldness in her eyes and her distant manner of speaking only increased each day. She didn't even stay a second after her work was done. Zephyr was curious about her, but he held back. His first objective was to learn about Mordret and the world he was in.
Since it had been two days since Zephyr started walking again, he decided to explore the room, particularly the books.
"What the hell?" Zephyr was astonished. As an archaeologist, he had a fondness for books and ancient literature. But this place left him breathless. "If I'm not wrong-- hell, even if I am wrong... this place has over a thousand books... Gosh," Zephyr gulped.
The books had covers made of hard leather, meant for long-time use. The paper was made of an unknown material, synthetic in texture but not easily tearable, just like in modern times.
'Wow, just wow.' Zephyr knew that even if he could read the language, it would still take him at least a year to finish all the books. They were too vast.
After a moment, Zephyr realized he was able to read the language or rather the runes. "Impressive..." Zephyr even saw a company name on the first page of the book. The logo of a serpent with two heads coiled around a sword was very attractive.
As he continued he spotted an interesting book, "Sin and Virtue System... by Oskar, eh?" Zephyr was shocked to know that Mordret had a taste for fantasy books. He put the book aside for the time being. Was the Fantasy genre even discovered at that time? Or was he in a matrix where the one watching him was forced to advertise a book of an unknown entity? He didn't know.
"And they are all handwritten." That was the most impressive thing for Zephyr. Writing over a thousand books was just too great of a fact, and collecting such fortune was an even greater one. If he had to deduce, these books contained the collective knowledge of perhaps a hundred or even a thousand years. He had no idea.
"These books must've cost a fortune. After all, handwritten books were never cheap even in the old times," Zephyr looked at the well-organized shelf and picked a few books that he thought might give him an overall idea of the world. He tried searching for something specifically related to Mordret, but that wasn't possible. In those thousands of books, he had no idea how to find the one that would tell him about Mordret's character.
"Peta Estate..." This was the first book that Zephyr picked up. As the Lord of this place, Zephyr needed to know more about it. 'I have a near-photographic memory... Or at least I remember the things that I find useful,' Zephyr began reading the book. In just a hundred pages, Zephyr's head started aching. 'Hell, no! Everything is just too important!' Zephyr held his head down.
Starting from the border of Lord Mordret's barony, Zephyr learned many things about the Peta Estate in general. The Peta Estate had the youngest Lord in the history of any barony. Not only that, but the young Lord had a total of four villages under his command, each having an average of five hundred villagers. The Estate was well nurtured and developed compared to other baronies. 'Just who the hell was Mordret?!' Zephyr had to agree that his initial judgment of Mordret as an arrogant young Lord who only liked to murder was completely changed.
Mordret was also responsible for the safety of these villagers from the beast raids.
"Oh, yeah, beast raids..." Zephyr became engrossed in that particular subject.
According to the book, Peta Estate faced Beast Raids at least twice a month.
"No wonder this Mordret guy is so strong... He faces death every now and then." The records gave Zephyr a better understanding of Mordret's character.
"But... What was that 'Lord's Wish' that the system talked about? Is there any clue?" Zephyr's eyes wandered on the records as he discovered a very interesting fact. "Hell... Mordret has never lost a single Beast Raid..." Losing a Beast Raid meant calling for reinforcements from the Viscount, which Mordret had never done, allowing him to save the taxes that would be paid with shards obtained from the beasts.
"Oh, right... I have to check on that shard from the tentacle beast too..." Zephyr realized he was slowly getting overwhelmed by both the information and the tasks he had to complete.
"It'll take time, but I want to play safe." Zephyr thought. He aimed to portray Mordret's character in a way that even Eliza wouldn't be able to differentiate.
"So bring it on! Let me know what this guy called The Lord of Peta Estate was." Zephyr laughed and submerged himself under the weight of books.
...
While Mordret continued to scavenge through books like a hungry beast, a beautiful pair of blue eyes stared at his wide back.
"My Lord... No matter how many times you forget... I'll make you remember. I am sorry for being weak," Eliza said to herself.
After the initial shock, she had finally come to her senses and decided not to give up easily.
What if her Lord forgot her? If she did something he always appreciated, maybe he would get his memories back. Or at least he might remember Eliza.
"Tonight, I-I won't be scared anymore." Eliza thought as she looked at the weird pillar awkwardly set in the corner of the room.
'Lord has truly forgotten everything; otherwise, instead of reading the book, he would've gone there the moment he woke up.' Eliza confirmed her doubts.
"My Lord... I won't let you forget me."
***
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